TUESDAY, 12.00NOON
DAYS before Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz returns from Beijing with newly signed agreements on SAA flying rights and diplomatic relations, the trade and industry department has announced stiff new protection quotas on imported shoes, especially those from China.
The restrictions, which apply to all non-World Trade Organsiation members, are to be gazetted within the next two days in a bid to create some breathing space for the embattled local shoe manufacturing industry, which has seen production drop 50% over the past seven years.
Alwyn Kraamwinkel, the trade and industry department’s chief director of industrioal promotions, told Parliament last week that SA’s shoe industry is not competitive and has been hard hit by a huge increase in exports, particularly from China. The import controls will aplly to all footwear imports from countries outside the WTO. SA cannot act against WTO imports. With China’s membership in the WTO due to be ratified in a year or two, the measures will give the SA industry a breathing space in which to improve competitiveness.